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Qantas flight QF11 (VH-OJQ) on June 21 went into the aviation history books as being the world's first commercial flight using the Boeing FANS-1 avionics package. Only the day before the Sydney to Los Angeles flight, the US FAA Flight Test Branch had given final approval to the Boeing FANS-1 package for 747-400 aircraft equipped with Rolls-Royce engines. For Seattle based Boeing, this was its first certification outside the US. Despite being a FANS flight, QF11 made normal HF broadcasts due to certain ground station certification requirements, however, data link messages successfully shadowed all communications. The flight communicated with Australia's CASA in Canberra, Auckland in New Zealand and the FAA Technical Centre in Atlanta. All components of the FANS-1 package functioned normally including the Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS), GPS and Satcom functions. (Rod Pascoe)
FANS – The Future is Here
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Fans – the Future Is Here
The certification of the Boeing FANS-I avionics package in June this year heralded a new era in airline operations and air traffic management.
The FANS-I upgrade for the Boeing 747-400 represents the initial implementation of the ICAO sponsored Future Air Navigation System (FANS). The FANS concept utilises satellite based Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) Systems integrated with ground based Air Traffic Management (ATM).
The current oceanic ATC system requires controllers to monitor the safe separation of aircraft through periodic position reports over often unreliable HF radio. The lack of confidence by controllers to be able to intervene in a potential conflict caused civil aviation authorities to place enormously large separation standards (100nm/185km laterally and 120nm/222km longitudinally) between aircraft in flight. Operational penalties stood in the way of improved capacity required by the airlines. These penalties included lower operating altitudes, use of fixed route systems, induced speed control, airspace restrictions and slot assignment through traffic flow management procedures.
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